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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fireone" data-source="post: 306103" data-attributes="member: 6543">[h=1]North Dakota hunters, landowners clash as pheasant season approaches[/h]One of the most contentious subjects during the recent legislative session, SB2315 sought to deal with the issue of whether landowners should have to post to prevent hunters and others from entering it, or whether hunters should be required to request permission from every landowner before entering private propertyWritten By: James Miller | Sep 26th 2020 - 8pm. <a href="https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/incoming/6675211-6143w4-POSTED2.jpg/alternates/BASE_LANDSCAPE/POSTED2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/incoming/6675211-6143w4-POSTED2.jpg/alternates/BASE_LANDSCAPE/POSTED2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>Fence dividing public and private land. (Dickinson Press file photo) Across the prairies, farmland and badlands of North Dakota, a new crop is growing in surprising abundance. It is not spring wheat, canola, barley, soybeans or corn, but rather a crop of unique signage reading, “ND LOCK OUT” and “#IAmNDLockOut.”The signage which began appearing in late 2019 comes from a group that took the mantle in an old fight in North Dakota. The group, North Dakota Lock Out, says that they are focused on protecting the property rights of North Dakotans as property owners -- primarily agricultural producers -- and have been seeking changes to North Dakota's private property laws.The signage is only the latest effort in a struggle pitting landowners and hunters in a battle that has raged for more than a decade as North Dakota remains the only state in the region permitting hunters to enter private property, without permission, unless the land is posted for no trespassing or no hunting — putting the onus on the landowner. <a href="https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/incoming/6675216-r98yl-POSTED1.jpg/alternates/BASE_LANDSCAPE/POSTED1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/incoming/6675216-r98yl-POSTED1.jpg/alternates/BASE_LANDSCAPE/POSTED1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>Signage began appearing in late 2019 across western North Dakota from a group that took the mantle in an old fight. The group, North Dakota Lock Out, says that they are focused on protecting the property rights of North Dakotans as property owners. (Dickinson Press file photo) One of the most contentious subjects during the recent legislative session, SB2315 sought to deal with the issue of whether landowners should have to post to prevent hunters and others from entering it, or whether hunters should be required to request permission from every landowner before entering private property. The amendments and subsequent watering down of the verbiage in SB2315 became the impetus for a reinvigorated debate in North Dakota and is one that will certainly be felt as pheasant season approaches this fall. Rep. Luke Simons, R-District 36, spoke on the House floor on the topic, siding with landowners in what he said was a clear violation of property rights.“Our land is being violated, our rights are being violated and as landowners, we are being violated,” Simons said. “Landowners would like people to ask for permission before they come on private land. It’s not a lot to ask. No one is saying, ‘no hunting here’, most welcome hunters. I welcome hunters. We just ask that they ask to come on private land.”Simons said that hunters are failing to understand a simple concept, saying “It’s not your right, it’s a privilege” to hunt on private property.Craig Armstrong, a North Dakota landowner and avid hunter, said he understood both sides of the argument.“When I started hunting it was commonplace to not have posted land, so we had access to all this private land because of the laws and the way things were. It was honestly wonderful growing up that way,” Armstrong said. “In the few times that we came across land that was posted, we’d find the landowner and talk to them. It was always better to be hunting posted land with permission because not as many people were hunting there because a lot of people won’t knock on doors or make that phone call. I wouldn’t hunt on land if there was even half a sign that maybe blew away, I think it’s better to just be on the side of caution and respect.”  Armstrong detailed how challenging it was to hunt before cellphones were invented and how the innovation makes the old ways of doing things much easier.“Back before cellphones I would write the name and phone number on the signs, come home and make the calls to the landowners to ask permission for the next time I would go out hunting,” Armstrong said. “When cellphones came out that was one of the things I was most excited about, being able to call right there. I’ve done that many times, I still do that all the time because I like doing that.”Today, Armstrong said that he understands the concerns raised by landowners.“It’s been great having access to all this private land that I can just hunt, it’s been wonderful. As a hunter I love our posting laws, but as an American citizen and proponent of property rights and land ownership, I don’t believe that landowners should have to post signs to keep people off the land,” he said. “Here in town if someone comes onto my property, I don’t have to post it. If people come on my land they are trespassing. Really, what is the difference?”Armstrong added, “I don’t blame landowners who are fighting for their rights on this. As a hunter, it’ll be a little more difficult for me and it’s a tradition being lost — which is a hard thing to lose — but in today’s age with technology it’s just not that hard. You have to do your homework and go find the landowner and get permission and everyone is more comfortable. They know who is out there and you know whose land you’re hunting.”  Just southwest of Belfield, hidden in those rolling pastures of ranchland and protected by buttes and valleys, lies a patch of land that is, according to local property owners, under attack.Evidence of the coarseness that so rattles these landowners can be found all throughout the neighboring patches of land: battered and beaten land, trash and spent shells, grass patches turned to mudholes and pronounced ruts in the shape of truck tires, some up to 10 inches deep, criss-crossing the mud chaotically, all but destroying a generations-old dirt trail used for work, not play.The main suspects? According to the landowners, irreverent hunters.Beginning in early 2019, farmers and ranchers along the Western Edge became more and more vocal about the apparent increase in flippant maltreatment of the land they work. Some have said that the age of hunting without permission is dying at the hands of those who benefit the most — hunters.The grievances of these ranchers and farmers doesn’t appear to be with hunting or all hunters in general, but rather a blatant disregard by a few bad apples for the land on which they stand. Many of these same landowners are proud, but concerned hunters themselves.“More and more people are wanting landowner rights back because of bad hunters,” Armstrong said. “There are bad hunters out there and they give all of us good hunters a bad name. They have a lot of ways that they piss off landowners by not following the rules, the law, shooting too close to their house, etc.”Armstrong added, “It seems to me, and really is, that we’ve become more of a hunting destination state for our neighbors. Most of the bad hunters are coming from the east, places like Minnesota and Fargo. They’re from the city and don’t know the ethics and think this land is theirs to use and abuse — it’s not.”Armstrong said that he believes that it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing should posting laws become a thing of the past.“I think that passing those laws would weed out the bad hunters because they’ll have to put some work and effort into it that they don’t want to do,” he said. “I think that my quality of hunting, I believe, will be better because not everyone is going to do their homework. Maybe then our relationship with landowners will become better. Then and probably only then.”For more information about the rules and regulations governing hunting on private property, visit <a href="https://gf.nd.gov/" target="_blank">https://gf.nd.gov/</a><img src="https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/incoming/6675216-r98yl-POSTED1.jpg/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/POSTED1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Signage began appearing in late 2019 across western North Dakota from a group that took the mantle in an old fight. The group, North Dakota Lock Out, says that they are focused on protecting the property rights of North Dakotans as property owners. (Dickinson Press file photo)----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The same people that pushed this bill in 2019 are going to bring it back in 2021.  Election for ND legislators is a month away. These are the YES votes from 2019. Vote them out. The ones marked also voted against public land along the Missouri River.[FONT=&quot]YEAS: Anderson, B.; Anderson, D.; Becker*; Bellew*; Blum*; Boe; Brandenburg*; Damschen; Delzer; Devlin; Dobervich; Ertelt; Fegley; Hatlestad; Headland; Hoverson; Howe; Johnson, C*.; Johnson, D.; Jones*; Kempenich; Kreidt; Laning*; Longmuir; Magrum*; Nelson, J.; Owens; Paulson; Pollert; Pyle*; Richter*; Schmidt*; Schneider; Schobinger; Schreiber-Beck*; Simons*; Skroch*; Trottier*; Tveit; Vetter*; Vigesaa; Weisz; Westlind*; Zubke[/FONT]</blockquote>

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